Re: The Guardian: The covenant is a waste of time and money

Thank you for writing to me, dear Bishop Obetia.
I agree that we should not follow Christ on our own terms, but on God's
terms. I agree that the church without discipline is a church without a
Lord and savior. I agree that we are to make disciples, not Anglicans.
God called me, as God calls all, out of darkness into light. I never
thought anyone beside my parents could love me, yet discovered that God
loves me, and not me only, but the whole world. My message has never been
that gays are good, but that God is good, and God's mercy endures forever.
I wish that you were not far away. I wish that you could come and dine
with my husband Ernest and me, as Jesus dined with publicans and sinners.
You would not find us saints, but you would find us changed. We would
share living water from Samaritan wells.
God bless and keep you. God lift up His countenance upon you and be
gracious unto you. God give you peace.
Louie
Louie Crew, PhD, DD, DD, DHL
Emeritus professor at Rutgers: The State University of New Jersey
Co-Chair of the Newark deputation to General Convention
----- Original Message ----- From: "Joel Obetia" <jobetia@yahoo.com>
To: "Louie Crew" <lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu>
Cc: <COULeaders@yahoo.co>
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2010 3:32 AM
Subject: Re: The Guardian: The covenant is a waste of time and money
Dear Louie,
I have read your writings on this matter of the Covenant with a lot of
interest. I guess you followed certain procedures to have this opinion come
to us. If you did not follow these procedures you would not have reached the
audience you have reached. You had the discipline to do it right to get to
the right people. Christians are called disciples because they have to
follow certain disciplines to succeed as followers of Christ. It is true we
are saved by Grace not discipline, but for the church to be a witness it
cannot conform to this world in order that grace might abound. The church
without discipline is a church without a Lord and saviour. It can be
anything other than a church.
In John 6 when it became difficult for many to follow Christ and they were
turning away for their lack of discipline, the Lord challenged the disciples
"are you also going to turn away?" I think many want to follow Christ on
their own terms. Perhaps you are right, the Anglican Church does not need a
covenant in order to keep it self in line. The Lord did not say to the
church 'go and make Anglican', but go and make disciplies! Since it has now
been proven that Anglicans are only making Anglicans and not disciples, then
the covenant becomes the only hope. When we declared a decade of evanglism
in the 90s we were declaring a decade for making Anglicans and it has blown
us apart. Disciples are made and making requires discipline.
Rt Rev Dr Joel Obetia PhD
Bishop of Madi West Nile
--- On Fri, 11/19/10, Louie Crew <lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu> wrote:
> From: Louie Crew <lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu>
> Subject: The Guardian: The covenant is a waste of time and money
> To: jobetia@yahoo.com
> Date: Friday, November 19, 2010, 8:27 PM
>
> FYi.
>
> Louie Crew
>
> > From
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/nov/18/covenant-waste-
> time-money?CMP=twt_gu
>
> THE COVENANT IS A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY
>
> By Simon Sarmiento in the Guardian
>
> + guardian.co.uk,
> Thursday 18 November 2010 12.12 GMT
>
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